KUALA LUMPUR / BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: Dart fans are in for a big treat when the inaugural PDD Malaysia Cup 2023 kicks off at the Maju Junction Mall on Dec 16.
The two-day event will feature 11 state teams, along with Malaysian uniformed bodies and three invited guest nations from Brunei, Thailand and India.
The event is expected to give a shot in the arm for darts in Malaysia, which has been officially recognised as a sport by the Ministry of Youth and Sports earlier this year.
Organised by PDD (Professional Darts Developer), the event is a culmination of a dream by the founders of PDD to take Malaysian darts to the next level by staging a year-long series of state darts events where participants accumulate points to qualify for a grand final in Kuala Lumpur.
The aim is to develop the sport at the grassroots level and unearth new talent that can be groomed to become top players and take part in future top international tournaments.
“Our main objective is to make it viable for Malaysian darters to make a living from playing darts, or at the very least supplement their income for now.
"Since darts has been gazetted as an official sport by the Youth and Sports Ministry, we hope to try to bring in more sponsors and money into the tournaments we organise so that our local darters can compete and excel against some of the best darters in the region,” said Pathma C.R., the co founder of PDD.
The 11 states who will be participating in the PDD Malaysia Cup 2023 are Federal Territory, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Johor, Perak, Terengganu, Kedah, Melaka, Penang, Perlis and Sarawak. They will be joined by the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) and the Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM), along with invited nations India, Brunei and Thailand.
“We are delighted to have the Police and Armed Forces participate in the tournament as well as they have a large pool of active players and we hope this tournament will motivate these players to improve their game through the exposure to other top players in the country and region,” said Pathma.
“We are also thankful that three countries accepted our invitation to take part as this would give the tournament some added prestige.”
For the record, PDD was founded by Pathma and K. Saegaran in 2022, two of the prime movers for darts in Malaysia and their passion for the sport was instrumental in helping to get darts recognised as an official sport.
Both have spent the last decade in various capacities within local darts organisations like SEDA (Selangor Darts Association) and MDA (Malaysia Darts
Association) before setting up PDD as a vehicle to professionalise the sport and provide opportunities to local darters to potentially earn a living from the sport.
